


What's Ladybug Without Her Chat Noir?

by LadySerendipitous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Costumes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 02:44:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8428402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySerendipitous/pseuds/LadySerendipitous
Summary: It's a costume contest, surprise! Adrien wants to dress up as Ladybug for a contest, but male Ladybug costumes just aren't something on the market. Enter one Marinette Dupain-Cheng and a little bit of bonding begins.





	

"Yeah, I've looked at all the sites and all the Ladybug costumes only come in women's sizes," Adrien said with a sigh, putting his phone down. 

"Dude, you live in the center of a fashion empire, couldn't you...?" Nino asked, looking unsure but Adrien's frown confirmed his suspicions. 

"Yeah, Father would not be pleased with me wasting talent like that," Adrien said glumly. Not that he would ask someone that would be unwilling. "You'd think with all the Ladybug fans out there though there'd be someone who'd want to make one."

I had been announced that at the end of October there would be a Ladybug costume contest at the Grand Paris Hotel. It'd been the talk of the town for days now. Everyone was excited about the prospect and just about any girl that could sew or buy a costume was going to try to compete. Adrien was interested for other reasons. It wasn't his love for Ladybug but rather his pride in his partner that he wanted to attend. It was going to be fun and he wasn't trying to win. Just see all his lady's fans. 

There had just been one hiccup in his plan. 

"I know of one designer that would be happy to work with you," Alya said with a knowing grin from behind the boys. 

Adrien turned around, Alya would not give him hope in vain. "Who?"

Alya wrapped an arm around Marinette, who had been listening but also sketching at the same time so the surprised noise she made as she was literally pulled into the conversation wasn't unexpected. "Marinette of course. Right?"

Like a deer caught in headlights, her eyes grew wide as she looked from the boys to Alya and back again. Hesitant at first, Marinette's confidence finally started to shine through. "Well, y-yeah, okay, yes I'll do it!"

Adrien lit up like it was Christmas and he was getting to unwrap a mountain of gifts. "Really, you'd do that for me?" Then he became thoughtful. "Wouldn't you rather make one for yourself though?"

"What? Me? Nah!" Marinette was fidgeting. "Besides, Ladybug's costume is pretty simple. Once I get your measurements it won't take any time at all!" 

Then Marinette realized she was going to get to be taking Adrien's measurements and the rest of the conversation became a blur. She'd gotten him to agree to come to her house the next day. She recalled that much. 

So a day later Marinette had Adrien in her room. He was looking through her sketch book as she dug out her measuring tape. Her walls were bare and Marinette decided she was just not going to put all the pictures up anymore. Especially if Adrien coming over kept on being a regular thing!

"S-so I got to confess," Marinette said, fidgeting with the yellow tape. "I've always wanted to take your measurements... for an outfit!" Marinette felt her face heat horribly. "I, but..."

Adrien grinned and stood, holding out the sketch book to her. "But for one of your original designs?"

"Yes!" There was relief in her voice. She also thought Adrien looked a little pink. "Okay, so..." Marinette paused and blinked. "I just realized I don't have to explain what I'm doing, do I?"

Adrien shook his head, grinning at her. "Not really, I'm sort of use to this."

Marinette couldn't help but grin back. This wasn't so bad. She went over and started taking Adrien’s measurements like the professional she was. Sorta. Every time she looked up at his smiling face she felt her face start to flame up. Marinette wish she could think of a topic to chit chat with Adrien with. She didn’t want this to be awkward.

Luckily, bad or good was debatable, Adrien had a question for her. “Why don’t you want to dress up as Ladybug?”

It wasn’t really a weird question. Just about anyone that could wanted to go to the contest after all. Marinette had been dodging the topic with Alya all week, but here was Adrien asking her directly and she just didn’t have enough brain power to try to act like a human being around him to also avoid a very touchy topic. “I, well, it’s just. Everyone else is.” Marinette scrunched up her face, trying to think of a better explanation. “It’s going to be a sea of red with spots.”

Marinette was sure she either wasn’t making any sense or somehow had insulted Adrien, after all he was going to be part of said sea. The thoughtful look he had didn’t turn dark, or confused, instead he seem to have an idea. “A bunch of Ladybugs and not a Chat Noir in sight?”

“Yes!” Not that it was the reason she wasn’t going, but she’d agree with Adrien. It seemed like a safe bet.

“It is a shame. I mean, sure Ladybug is the bigger hero…”

“But she’s not!” Marinette crossed her arms, then realizes she didn’t get the number for the inseam and went back to try to get it correct this time. “I mean, they’re a team, right? One isn’t better than the other.”

“No, no, you’re right. I agree with you. It’s just that Ladybug for the public is the star,” and he said it with such awe that Marinette wondered if perhaps her crush had a bit of a crush on her? Ridiculous!

Measurements taken, she double checked her notes to be sure she didn’t forget anything.

“Have you thought about doing a Chat Noir costume?” Adrien asked, catching her by surprise.

“Hu?” Marinette blinked up at him.

“Well, what’s a Ladybug without Chat Noir? I don’t know how long this will take you, but you said it was simple, so…”

“Wait, are you asking ME to be Chat Noir?” Marinette felt like she couldn’t catch her breath as he smiled brightly at her.

“If it won’t be too much trouble. We could get the material tomorrow when we get mine?” He sounded hopeful.

Marinette couldn’t say no to Adrien anyways, so she nodded dumbly as she flipped a page in her sketch book. Unlike Ladybug’s costume, she’d have to actually do a bit of work to give Chat Noir’s justice.

~.~.~.~

It was fifteen minutes before she was suppose to met with Adrien at the fabric store. Fifteen minutes was not enough time to defeat an akuma, but she was going to try. “I don’t have time for this,” Ladybug muttered darkly.

“What, got a hot date?” her partner asked with a smirk.

“Something like that,” Ladybug replied with a smirk of her own, which caused Chat Noir to look at her with surprise. She would have enjoyed teasing him for a moment longer, but they were a bit busy. “DUCK!”

It had taken a record breaking twenty five minutes to take down the akuma. A personal best for the two super heroes, who did take a moment to bask in the glory of a job well done before their miraculouses reminded them their time would be up soon.

“You’d better hurry up to your date,” Chat Noir teased, but there was an edge to his voice.

Ladybug nodded. “Not too much of a date when you’re buying supplies. See ya.” And off she swung off.

Marinette tried to catch her breath as she reached the door of the fabric shop. She was late. Not horribly late, but late anyways. She was about to open the door when a voice caught her attention. “Oh, good you weren’t waiting.”

Marinette looked over her shoulders to see Adrien, who looked like he was also trying to catch his breath. “Did the akuma make you late?”

“Yeah, it did,” he said with a smile and a nod. Damn that smile was going to kill her one of these days. Considering how the akuma’s attack had been in another arrondissment Marinette hadn’t thought that would have been a believable excuse, but bless her luck it seemed to have worked.

“Well, we still have plenty of time to pick out fabric,” Marinette said and they both walked in. While Adrien’s costume was the easier of the two, with just black and red fabric, Marinette wanted to be sure they got just the right fabric. 

“The problem is,” Marinette explained as they walked down the aisles of various materials. “Their outfits are like Kevlar, but webbed, and a lot more elastic then anything man made.”

“You,” Adrien looked at Marinette with an odd expression, “know a lot about what their outfits are made of.”

Marinette blushed. Damn it, she was sounding suspicious. Wait, she had it. “Well, I’m only assuming Ladybugs costume is like Chat Noir’s. I’ve met him a couple of times.”

Adrien grinned brightly at that. “Of course you would have noticed the material when you were so close to him!”

Was she that close? Well, technically she was, but it didn’t seem all that odd until now when Adrien brought it up. Could she crawl down a small hole and die? “I, well, I’m a designer!”

Since the material didn’t have to be bullet proof, not that she ever wanted to test the theory of if she was bullet proof in costume, Marinette chose their fabric based on color, movement and finally texture. There was still then the need for all of the accessories for Chat Noir’s costume, which made it the more expensive of the two, but Adrien kept on insisting she go as authentic as possible and not worry about the cost. He even gave his own opinion on bells, which might have been the hardest decision after the fabric. 

Eventually though fabric and accessories were bought and Adrien even helped her home with everything. Marinette was going to have to make sure to get Alya pastries all week for this. Maybe even all month.

~.~.~.~

Adrien had been worried about being too eager, but Marinette told him as long as he didn’t ask her if she was almost done, she didn’t mind him coming by to see her progress. In fact she didn’t mind him coming over for any reason what so ever, but she couldn’t tell him that. Instead when his extra circular activities didn’t prevent him, Adrien came by every day. He was eager to show her the yo-yo he’d bought and even showed her a few simple tricks he was trying to perfect before the contest. “Though I doubt they’ll really let a bunch of people do elaborate tricks through out the hotel.”

“Maybe not around the hotel, but what about on stage?” Marinette suggested. She then held out her hand to see the yo-yo herself. Once Adrien handed it to her, she stood up and brought it up and down its string. It wasn't really anything like her yo-yo as Ladybug. The balance wasn't bad however and she played with it for a few moments more, forgetting that Adrien was watching her. 

"Wow, you're really good at that. Are you sure you don't want to be Ladybug?" The question had been poorly timed, the yo-yo had been in the air and Marinette tugged at it accidentally as her eyes went big, looking at Adrien. With her eye not on the yo-yo she didn't see what was about to happen until it was too late!

The yo-yo landed on Adrien's head causing him to wince and rub his head. "Oh my, Adrien! Are you okay?"

Adrien gave her a sheepish grin. "I'm fine. Sorry. I shouldn't have distracted you."

"No, no I shouldn't have... are you sure you're okay?" Marinette was right in front of him, on her tip toes, her head tilted looking at his head. 

It's okay, really. I'm use to it," Adrien said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

"Hu," was the only response Marinette could muster because regular hits on the head with a yo-yo wasn't something normal at all. Except...,

Adrien's eyes went wide and he started to turn red. "I meant hits in general... because of fencing and karate... yeah!"

"Oh? Oh!" And Marinette started laughing. She'd been absolutely ridiculous with where her mind had been going. At least Adrien was laughing with her.

~.~.~.~

"Come on Marinette, just a sneak peek," Alya was nearly begging at this point, sitting in her room. Marinette had both costumes tucked away, a bit annoyed at her best friend.

"I told you before you'll see them when everyone else does," Marinette said in a huff, her arms crossed. 

"Oh, but Adrien gets to see the costume!"

"He sorta has to Alya, it's HIS costume!"

"Yeah, but you're still hiding something from me. I can tell," Alya said wrinkling her nose. Marinette couldn't begin to count all the things she was keeping from Alya, but her friend had good instincts. 

She was keeping something from her in regards to the costume. Adrien was the only one that knew about the Chat Noir costume she was making to accompany him. Part of the reason was to surprise everyone. Part of it was so that if she chicken out at the last minute there’d only be one person disappointed. Of course the person that would be disappointed was the last person on the face of the planet she’d deny anything to, so it wasn’t really going to happen. It was just knowing she could safely get away without going made her feel less freaked out about going.

Alya narrowed her eyes as Marinette seemed to not budge on the topic. “Maybe I should go for the weakest link then?”

“Weakest link?” Marinette repeated.

“Weakest link,” Alya confirmed with a smirk as she got out her phone and started texting someone.

It took a while for Marinette to figure out who Alya might be referring to, but by the time she did it was too late. She made a grabbing motion for the phone even though the texted had already been sent. Maybe, just maybe she could delete the whole conversation and block the number from the phone. Alya though was doing a very good job of keeping Marinette at bay and her smile widened as she saw a message forming. 

“Yes, there is a secret,” Alya gleefully read the message. Marinette slumped in defeat. Alya’s voice though changed from delight to outrage. “But if I told you it wouldn’t be much of a secret, would it?”

Marinette perked up happily. She hadn’t exactly told Adrien that she didn’t want to tell Alya, but they had both agreed it would be good that no one going to the contest knew. She wondered if that meant Adrien hadn’t even told Nino. Obviously Alya was wondering the same thing as she started furiously typing on her phone once more. A few moments later she groaned. 

“How?” Alya finally asked her.

Marinette shrugged. “Adrien apparently understands the importance of a good secret.”

~.~.~.~

The day of the contest had arrived and Marinette wondered why she had thought it was a good idea for Adrien to come over to her place to change into his costume. Sure as the designer she had wanted to make sure everything was still fitting correctly and there wasn’t any last minute fixes that needed to be done, but still it meant Adrien was coming over early.

She had to talk herself out of dressing in anything other than the t-shirt and sweats she was wearing, she would be changing soon. Also not to do anything with her hair. Adrien and her had discussed the option of her teasing her hair out, but the amount of hairspray she had to use to accomplish the feat just made it look crunchy and there wasn’t a guarantee that it would last long enough. Besides, Adrien had said her hair looked cute down. CUTE!

When he finally arrived her nerves did get the best of her and she had to run up to her room and give herself a pep talk, with Tikki's help of course, before coming back down and bringing him the red and black polka dotted outfit. While he changed Marinette did a triple check they had all the accessories. Adrien was going to be a great Ladybug she decided and she was happy with her own costume, so in the end there wasn’t too much to worry about.

“Are the earrings on straight,” he’d asked after she had put red ribbons in his hair. He almost didn’t have enough hair to keep the ribbons in place, but she was pretty sure they’d stay put. 

Adrien turned from the mirror to look at her, and she nodded. “Yup, they’re good, and I have the spare stickers in my pocket in case you lose one.”

“Thanks Marinette. It’s weird not having a pocket to put anything in,” he admitted.

“Oh I know!” She then moved her hands quickly. “Women’s clothing, pockets! One thing I’m going to fix someday!”

It was a good save and Adrien nodded.

“Well good thing I have Chat Noir with me then, to hold all my stuff,” he said with a quick laugh.

Marinette cocked an eyebrow, then smirked herself. “My Lady, is that all you think I’m good for?”

Adrien looked at her in surprise and Marinette wondered if she messed up somehow. “Of course not kitty. I also need you to distract the akumas for me.”

“Ah, that. I am very good at distracting people,” Marinette replied, even wiggling her eyebrows.

Adrien nearly choked on thin air. “You, you are too good at this!”

Marinette blushed looking at Adrien. It was several long moments before she snapped out of it, not realizing he had been pretty much staring back. “Uh, we, better get going. Masks on!”

“Oh, yeah right,” Adrien fiddled with his mask for a moment before getting it on. Marinette though had to straighten it for him and they both seemed to still be blushing. “Thanks, by the way, for making the costume, both of them really, and well, coming with me.”

Marinette smiled brightly. “Of course Adrien. Thank you for letting me be your partner.”


End file.
